Chapter 161

NMRJKM Side Story Chapter 2

Carlothian looked at Luciano, who was now the emperor, with a sideways glance. The Emperor, Luciano said.

“Just wipe them out.”

“Are you really going to handle politics like that?”

“Then should we just let those who are looking to take advantage of the Empire’s current weakness go unchecked?”

“Still, an emperor should be able to see the bigger picture.”

Luciano glanced off into the distance for a moment. Carlothian couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh and immediately turned serious. But Luciano boldly stated,

“I’ve thought about it for a long time. Just wipe them out.”

“It’s just a minor friction at the border, after all.”

“Do you know how many soldiers from the kingdom have been killed at the border under your orders?”

“If they cross the border without permission, they deserve to die.”

“What’s the difference between you and me?”

“There is a difference.”

“Then what is it?”

“Somewhere is different, I suppose.”

Luciano’s expression turned sour, but Carlothian, with his arms crossed, spoke seriously.

“Anyway, it would be cleaner to receive an apology for crossing the border and leave it at that. Pushing into the border area would look like a declaration of war.”

Luciano sighed. That statement was indeed correct. Luciano, who never expected to ascend to the throne in such chaotic times, rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. Unfortunately, there was no Dorothea here to worry about him. And it wasn’t like Carlothian could pat him on the back.

Neither of them would be pleased.

“Then let’s just accept the apology and be done with it.”

“You should also demand compensation for the border invasion.”

“But we agreed not to go to war.”

“That’s that.”

Carlothian stood up. After all, he had only come for this level of conversation. It was difficult to talk like this in a formal meeting.

Everything is preordained. Let’s demand an apology and compensation for the border invasion. There will be no war.

“But what if they come out wanting war?”

Carlothian frowned at Luciano’s question.

“Handle it as you see fit.”

“You should take the lead!”

War fanatic! Murderer! Where have all those nicknames gone?

Carlothian realized with surprise that he was still referred to by those titles, which he hadn’t heard in a long time.

“I’m a newlywed.”

“How are you, newlywed?”

“Anyway, I’m a newlywed.”

“Should have done well from the start.”

“……I often think the same.”

Luciano sighed and scratched his head. At that moment, a servant hurried over to tidy his hair. Luciano found this a bit unsettling.

“It wasn’t a good thing to neglect your own wife because you were infatuated with someone else’s.”

At those words, Carlothian paused for a moment. Then he looked at the emperor, Luciano.

“……Did you know about that?”

“Are you joking? That rumor has spread widely in high society.”

Luciano shrugged.

“Dorothea probably doesn’t know.”

It was impressive that she didn’t know. Carlothian wiped his face and said to Luciano in a firm voice.

“I have no feelings for her anymore.”

“I’m sure you don’t.”

“I mean it.”

“Duke, do you really not understand why I didn’t say anything to you even when those rumors were rampant?”

Carlothian frowned momentarily at that remark. He didn’t know the answer to the question. As he stood there with a completely clueless expression, Luciano clicked his tongue and said,

“Although rumors spread in high society, the truth is that you didn’t love Dorothea that much, did you?”

“……”

With that statement, Luciano waved his hand dismissively. Carlothian blinked in confusion as he exited the Emperor’s audience room. Did I not love Dorothea?

The feelings he had for Dorothea back then were vastly different from what he felt for Ariadeline now. He couldn’t possibly consider them the same.

Carlothian concluded that his feelings for Dorothea were ‘love,’ but there was a tremendous gap between that and the love he felt for Ariadeline.

Lost in thought, he headed toward the Empress’s palace. He had to go pick up Ariadeline first.

Upon arriving at the empress’s palace and being guided by a maid, he paused for a moment at the sound of voices coming from the terrace.

“But that woman was saying some strange things.”

It was Dorothea’s voice. Ariadelin’s voice replied to her.

“What strange thing?”

“Well…”

Dorothea continued speaking.

“That Carlothian liked me.”

Carlothian thought to himself. She truly was oblivious in the most peculiar ways. Ridiculously so.

☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓

Fortunately, young Carlothian had no difficulty securing the title of Duke. Many vassal families pledged their loyalty to the Denaves family, and the servants working for the Denaves household also loved this family.

After the tragic deaths of the couple, they struggled to protect Carlothian. However, even with that protection, it did not mean that their hearts remained unscathed.

Rumors began to attach themselves to Carlothian.

“The cursed child.”

“He must have the same madness as the Duke.”

“Who knows? If she marries him, she might meet the same fate as the duchess.”

As soon as he came of age, Carlothian distanced himself from high society and turned to the battlefield. When he threw himself into a place where life and death were at stake, such rumors became irrelevant.

Amidst the bloodshed, severed limbs, and heads rolling on the battlefield, he survived until the end.

And in high society, they began to call him a war fanatic, a murderer, and a duke with madness.

It was around that time that he inherited his father’s sword, bestowed by the Emperor. The madness flared up. Just as the rumors in high society suggested.

Carlothian wanted to deny reality. That his father’s madness had been passed down to him. If that were true, then was it all true that he was cursed and a murderer?

He was confused. It was still before he realized that Deathrotea was the source of the curse.

After the war ended, Carlothian shut himself away in his mansion. But he still had obligations. An heir. He had the duty to continue the family line.

The position of duchess was sweet. Yes, even if he was a murderer or suffered from madness.

Numerous marriage proposals poured in, but he felt no excitement. Due to the madness that visited him every night, he couldn’t spend a night with a wife. Whether he could have an heir was uncertain.

For him, marriage was merely one of the many things that would torment him. Therefore, he turned a blind eye to the proposals that came flying in. The marriage requests were engulfed in the flames of the fireplace and burned away.

Vassal families began to express their concerns one by one, but there was nothing to be done. Nothing. He didn’t want to do anything at all.

He would rather wish for war to break out again. If he fell into that hellish place, he would be filled only with the thought of having to survive.

As he spent his days like that, a letter arrived from the palace. It contained an order, or rather a command, from the Emperor to show his prowess in the upcoming hunting festival, as he had distinguished himself in the recent war.

Carlothian crumpled it in his grasp. But he couldn’t refuse.

He looked at Deathrotea. If only the Emperor hadn’t conferred that upon him…

Resentment surged up suddenly, but he soon shook his head. The Emperor was his father’s brother. He couldn’t have known. There was no way he could have.

His resentment had nowhere to go.

On the day of the hunting festival, he headed to the hunting grounds within the palace without anyone accompanying him. Some did not recognize him, as he had not shown his face in high society, but others did.

They whispered.

Ah, that’s him. The cursed duke.

The whispers irritated him. So, he steered his horse far away from the nobles.

But then.

“Ahhh! Help!”

The scream of a woman rang out. He turned his head to look and saw a horse, ridden by a woman, galloping wildly.

The horse was charging toward Carlothian. He frowned. Such an incident had nothing to do with him, but there were too many eyes watching.

He sighed and—

“Ahhh!”

He reached out his arm over the wildly running horse and grabbed the waist of the woman sitting there.

“Uh, um…”

The woman blinked in confusion. She was someone he had never seen before and had no interest in. All he noticed were her unusually large blue eyes.

“Be careful.”

The excited horse was galloping far away, but that was not his concern. Carlothian lifted her down from the horse. Her family rushed over in a flurry.

“I told you not to ride!”

Her male sibling scolded her with a worried tone.

“Thank you. Really.”

Carlothian felt uncomfortable in this situation.

“It’s nothing.”

So, he quickly mounted his horse again and made his escape. From the very beginning, it was all just exhausting.